Liam S. Williams - RV: All You Need to Know Before Traveling, Living, Or Retiring In A Motorhome: RV Revolution, #1

RV

All You Need to Know Before Traveling, Living, or Retiring In a Motorhome

2017 Liam S. Williams

Introduction: The RV Lifestyle Can You Do It?

Y es. That's easy to answer, but maybe not so much to understand. Maybe you know the basics. You leave X and go to Y. There's an RV of some kind that gets you there. But it's all the things that insiders know who've lived it, and are doing it well in practice that really matter.

That's what you get with this guide. The quickest, most succinct book on RV living/traveling you can get. Instead of giving you endless options of what to do, the best ones are in here and explored. We'll cover all the basics, and why certain ones might be better or worse for you.

By the end, you'll have a plan of what you will want to do, and how to do it. Because being successful with the RV lifestyle isn't hard, but it sure can be easy to mess up.

Let's make sure you don't do that, and save yourself a lot of money, time, and woes. It's a fun lifestyle with low expenses so let's see if you want to jump into it!

Budgeting to Know What You'll Do

But no matter how you are coming into it, you will have a budget. Everyone does. Should you be one of those lucky people that has ample funds and can get anything they want and needs, congrats! Things are going to likely be a walk in a sunny park.

But if you are not fortunate, paying attention to what to do and think about before you take off is even more important. Every choice, mistake, and action you do can mean the difference between financial stability or winding up stuck. It's best to know just what you want to do right from the start. You'll soon find out that doing stuff like that while on the road, before leaving that old home base is a lot harder.

But even if you are already on the road, maybe you are a bit confused. Perhaps you made some choices that weren't great, or you need new ideas. This book will help polish things out for you, to save your time that is even more precious than maybe anyone else just starting out. Let's keep it simple by starting to figure out budget needs. Do these things:

Find Your Yearly Budget

Break it Down by Month

In that, you want to figure out things like...

Groceries

Health Insurance

Car Insurance

Cell Phone

Pet Food

And so on. You will be adjusting this later, but what you have after putting down all the things that are known, means as you go things can be changed. Maybe you will be swapping out that weekly lobster dinner for having a better data plan but more on that later. We'll figure out all that stuff soon.

Basically, you want to put in all the things that you can't really change. Notice that gas or the RV itself isn't there? That's because you don't do that yet. But it isn't like the budget is thorough enough. You'll need to really dig down and figure out what will work for you. So let's go there, and have you really figuring out what matters.

Mapping Out Your Musts, Wants, and Wishes

We are going to take what happens next in three places. That is deciding between what is a want, must, and wish. Ideally, you need to get your musts. It makes your chances for loving the RV lifestyle a lot stronger than if not.

Wants are going to come in next, which you might find blending a bit with the musts. A lot of it depends on your specific lifestyle, but there is a chance something that you thought would be a want really is a wish.

And wishes are for when you have all the rest. I can tell you now, it is a slim chance everyone is going to get all their wishes. Unless you are very modest in your wishes and have the budget to back it up, you might not have them. At least not right from the start but you will still be quite happy if you've gone through the other two.

Knowing the Musts

Both knowing experience and the human condition will tell you a lot about the musts. And things might get blunt. Real. So let's jump right in to figuring out just what kind of situation will fit you best.

Let's start with the most dividing thing.

Bathrooms

Didn't see that coming? Yes, not many do. But once you choose this lifestyle, you are going to be a lot less private and more public... unless you plan otherwise. Would these things really bother you?

Having to use a Public Shower?

Hearing the sounds of bathroom noises?

Waiting to use the Shower?

Finding no open Toilets?

Walking by yourself to a bathroom, which might be far away?

If you answered yes to any of these things, you'll need to make it a big priority to find two things on your RV:

1.Shower and Toilet

2.Large Grey and Black Tank

If you also don't like wiping down the shower and toilet which is together also known as a wet bath then you'll want a separate showering area. It might be not connected to the toilet at all, or a stall in the bathroom. A gray tank is going to hold the shower water, and kitchen water, with the black tank just for what comes out of the toilet.

The caveat to this is if you choose to get a composting toilet, which does NOT smell, and is very well loved for its low maintenance cost. Check out the Nature's Head Toilet (http://natureshead.net/) to see what it can do or other models from researching ones with similar good reviews.

This is still the leading model, which while not cheap, can pay for itself if you think of the time spent going to a dumping station to pull out your rig and empty it or have a company come 'pump' out the tank from your RV. It's a great choice, especially if you want the option of going off grid or being off of sewer connections.

Bedroom

A lot of this is going to depend on how many people are sleeping in this RV, and how much work you can handle for the bed routine. Let's figure out what kind of person you are when it comes time to roll out of bed and into the rest of the RV.

Do you like making your bed in the morning?

Are you okay with small sleeping spaces?

Is it okay if guests sit on your bed?

If you said nada to any of those questions, that means you are going to need to be careful with floor plans. The smaller trailer options will give you lightweights and good gas towing, but often end up having plans that features a converting bed into the seating area. So looking into trailers that might fit your needs, budget, and good layout should come as a huge importance.

The whole make-your-bed-and-make-it-into-a-couch-and-repeat everyday will wear on people, so think long and hard if this sounds annoying or even physically challenging for you. Gets trickier if you have another person sleeping near you who might sleep in. That breakfast might always be taken in bed!

RV Insurance and Roadside Assistance

Partly you'll get in depth with this when it comes to thinking about disasters and accidents. Most often, places will require to know you have RV insurance. The process of it isn't too hard. You will end up calling whoever covers your car insurance, and doing an upgrade. You'll likely need to provide a proof of purchase cost of value, sometimes by taking photographs if needed. It isn't too hard of a process, even for older or refurbished RVs.

Once that is done, it comes down to knowing about roadside assistance. When you get on the road, things might happen. And towing a car is expensive. If it ends up being a car and an RV? It could end up really putting a snag in the plans.